Although we had been jumping around the Legend of Zelda canon early in the blog’s life, lately I’ve been trying to get through them in order. Today is the first handheld outing, with one of the stranger stories in the game. Not gameplay – that’s mostly in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link – but in the oddness of its story.

I won’t spoil that part, but Link ends up, in this adventure, on a deserted island that has some strange inhabitants, with a quest that involves retrieving musical instruments.

Our Thoughts

Link’s Awakening is a real Zelda game when it comes to mechanics – killing, slashing past places, all with the equipment from A Link to the Past and the like. The difference feels like it’s in the setting – the island Link washes up on – with some different environments, and how there appear to be more unique enemies.

The main downside of that is that you have slightly newer patterns to learn for some of them, but as normal Zelda enemies usually don’t feel as iconic to me, that’s fine. Beyond that, as it’s standard gameplay, it feels familiar while being just about different enough.

The overworld is interesting to explore, possibly the most different, interactive and varied that I feel I have played with so far. It certainly starts early, sending you around and changing things in the area. The dungeons are still a major highlight, however, really putting you to the test and putting in the specific gauntlets that really challenge you as you move around.

Final Thoughts

I do sometimes wish I had a bit more patience with the more challenging levels. The feeling of wanting to do the list means that some leave me thinking that I’ll play the games later, but I do fear I miss out. Here, certainly, the dungeons wore me out. Still, this game presents an amazingly fun place to explore through time.